Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Cross country skiing at the school earlier today.The weather has been brilliant- sunny and cold!On the ice rink!Ice skating in the fantastic sun! Marjo, the ice skating instructor.Penpals help each other out at the skiing tracks.Cross country skiing in the sun at Kuvansi!Reciting some Burns for the Finnish children, and teachers!Jyrki- a real Finnish "Scotsman!"

Tonight, in the hut where we had sausages and snacks after playing with our penpals outside.

Inside the hut, with the roaring fire, which ensured we kept warm.

Quotes from Wednesday 16th February 2011

A summary of the day:

Breakfast was at 9am- after our long journey yesterday.

We then got the bus to Kuvansin koulu- our school, about 10km away, where we met our penpals and saw around the school, which is very different to our own.

We watched as our penpals introduced Finland to us via various Powerpoints. Then, we took our own turn to present our own Powerpoints to the Finnish class.

After lunch, we split into two groups and our penpals helped us outside as we headed off to either ice-skate or cross-country ski.

After cross country skiing, we had snacks and drinks, then came back to Varkaus, where we visited the mechanical music museum.

Then, back at our accommodation, we had dinner then played with our penpals, who came with their parents.

Lewis: I liked the skiing- the place we are staying is really nice and it's bigger than I thought it would be. The food has been really nice too!

Ethan: The woodwork room in the school is really cool. It was fun playing with our penpals.

Harry: The museum was really fun. The skiing was harder than I thought it would be but I enjoyed it! The snow is really deep, much deeper than I imagined.

Ewan J: I liked the skiing, even though I fell over in the really deep snow. The accommodation is massive.

Kathryn: Meeting my penpal was nice. It was fun skiing, but hard work. The school is really different.

Ruby: I really enjoyed the ice skating and I am having a really good time.

Megan: I learned how to ice skate today. We need a sewing room in our school, like in Kuvansi!!

More from the rest of the class perhaps tomorrow!

Note from Mr Purves:

Unfortunately, the internet is not working properly at our accommodation, so I have had to come to Mr Ikonen's house to upload this work. Please understand that we are trying to do all we can to let you see what we are doing, but it is possible that we won't manage to upload material each day, as originally planned.

Everyone has had a brilliant first full day here today- and it has been really great to see the penpals working so hard with each other when we were skiing or skating earlier today. As I write this, it's -28C outside, so it's very cold, but it many have been surprised and have said that it doesn't feel as cold as they thought it would feel!

Background

Since May 2007, when Yester first made links with Kuvansin koulu (Kuvansi Primary School) in Eastern Finland, we have always had the hope that one day we could take pupils from here in Scotland, to visit their friends in Finland.

Now, in 2011, we are about to do just that! This blog will keep track of the plans, and the trip itself, allowing the pupils (and parents) to keep a permanent record of what should be a memorable visit.

Below are links to the class blogs we have run since 2007 with Kuvansi Primary School:

Varkaus weather

None of the work carried out by the two classes could have been done without us becoming involved through the fantastic eTwinning resource! Have a look for yourself at how it can link schools in Europe...